Hackers from around the world gather in Las Vegas to kick off DefCon

Thousands of security experts and technology enthusiasts from around the globe have descended on Las Vegas, Nevada as the second of two back-to-back hacker conventions begins Thursday in Sin City.

The twenty-first annual DefCon gets underway Thursday at the Rio
Hotel and Casino in Vegas, just one day after the head of the
National Security Agency gave the keynote address up the road at
Black Hat, another yearly hacking convention that attracts
computer experts from around the globe.

And although NSA Chief Gen. Keith Alexander appeared at the
2012 installation of DefCon to present a plea for hackers to
consider employment under Uncle Sam, the organizers of the
convention have asked government agents to reconsider attending
this year’s event following a revealing few months ripe with
intelligence leaks. Those disclosures, attributed to former
federal contractor Edward Snowden and continuously published by
the media during the last several weeks, have shown the efforts
the United States government undertakes to conduct cyber
surveillance.

DefCon organizers have asked federal officials to skip-out
on this year’s gathering, and during Wednesday’s address, some
attendees at Black Hat jeered the general as he defended the
NSA’s surveillance policies.

"The whole reason I came here was to ask you to help
make it better," Alexander said during his keynote address.
"If you disagree with what we're doing, you should help make
it better."

On Thursday, hackers hope to begin attending four days of
conferences, workshops and lectures at DefCon that will help hone
their abilities to reverse-engineer technology and penetrate
networks. And even with Alexander and his cronies being asked not
to attend this year’s festivities, a fair share of programs are
slated nonetheless to discuss the NSA’s recently exposed
surveillance programs and their impact on technologists.

But while the Electronic Frontier Foundation and American
Civil Liberties Union will both hold panel discussions at DefCon
to discuss the limits of the government’s programs with regards
to the law and modern tech, thousands are expected to sit in on
presentations that are more suitable for James Bond films than an
internship under Alexander.

So far on the schedule, events at this year’s gathering
include seminars involving ways to hack almost anything, from
household electronics to high-tech automobiles. Compromising
cellphones and safes are both on the agenda, as is one discussion
that will divulge ways to exploit Google TV, and at least two
involving attacks aimed at computer-assisted automobiles.

DefCon kicks off Thursday morning with a presentation on
hacking laws co-hosted by EFF attorney Marcia Hoffman and runs
through Sunday.